Category Archives: Parables for Financial Peace

In financial terms, leverage acts as a multiplier. It allows an individual to purchase or invest in more by borrowing. In the mechanical world, leverage can produce powerful effects. Archimedes once said, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”

In terms of a home mortgage, envision that your monthly payments as the small force being applied to one end of a lever. That small amount of cash can produce enough lift (cash from the bank) to purchase your home.

A “Charley Brown Christmas” the TV special that almost wasn’t. The TV executives didn’t like several things about the show. Bill Melendez the producer and director had second thoughts about the program as well. If Charles Shultz had listened to their advice, it would have robbed the special of its impact.

They wanted to add a laugh track, so we knew what was funny.

They weren’t happy with the children’s voices. Adults could do better.

The background jazz music didn’t feel right for a kid’s program.

CBS executives thought the reading from Luke might be a turn off, using the King James Version to top it off.

I first learned the prayer with the word trespasses in it, as quoted below:

forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Although I ran through the woods quite a bit, I never violated any “No Trespassing” signs. So I thought myself quite safe.

Now a bit older I realize this portion of prayer is not so safe at all. Augustine called it “The terrible petition“. For if we utter it with an unforgiving heart, we are asking the Lord NOT to forgive us.

Your budget says no, but your desires say yes. In the midst of this murky push and pull of emotions, impulses, logic, and wants a decision is made. What governs the outcome of that tug of war?

Most people’s credit card balances and contents of their closets indicate that they are losing this battle.

Why do people fail to resist these impulses? Some really smart people have studied this subject. Let’s listen and learn from them. The research indicates there are 3 primary points of failure. Continue reading Why buy when we shouldn’t→

If you have kids and haven’t been regulating what goes on in your home with regards to the TV, I hope you really consider each item in the list below. If you don’t have children yet or if they’re still very young, I hope you soak up this information so you can stand firm and make informed decisions regarding your family’s TV watching.

1 Too much is Too much!

Most kids watch way too much television. Children 2-5 watch 32 hours a week. That’s a 4 day work week! 71% of 8-18 year olds have a TV in their bedrooms. It is doubtful if any real parental control is occurring in these situations. Over 66% have the television on during family meal time. So much for good family discussions around the table.

Her back ached and her stomach murmured, with a silent sore hunger. She straightened up with a few straggling sticks in her hand and gazed at the gate and stonewall that circled the city. Her husband crushed, repairing the very gate, she stood without. The memories of his love crammed away like the kindling she now stuffed in her satchel. The sticks would fuel a flame to feed a final meal for her only boy and perhaps her too.

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Margin is the gap between what we’re fully capable of doing and what we are doing. When we’re overloaded we’re operating without any margin, which will leave you depleted. We need this open space in our lives. It is where we go to recharge our batteries, put up our feet and re-energize.

Most of us have very little margin. This produces stress, which leaves us haggard. Make it a priority to reclaim some free space or margin in your life.

Maybe I’m simple minded but I value businesses and the economic system, I live in. It’s not perfect, but seems better than most alternatives.

Let me explain. On a day to day basis, I’m free to buy any number of products and services. In almost all cases there is lots of competition and products that provide real choice. I’m employed by a business that pays me an agreed upon salary. When I chose to enter the line of work that I’m in, there was information available letting me know my potential income and demand for my skills in the workplace. Continue reading Is a Business Servant-like?→

When I was a young adult my mom would tell me, “Stop and smell the roses.” A cute saying but for a young man with goals, I didn’t stop to truly listen – to smell that rose of wisdom she had just shared… foolish me.

Today, ( I do literally mean today – in 90 minutes I’ll be there ) our pastor has organized a solitude retreat. Why? Because, he is an awesome pastor and knows that we don’t stop and smell the roses. Jesus is a rose. I need to slow down and walk with Him and chat with Him, if I really hope to follow Him. My nature is to be running off on some side trail into the woods looking for the next big elusive thing. Jesus is waiting patiently on the path, for me to come to my senses and rejoin Him on the way.

Some conservatives who believe in unrestrained capitalism might have difficulty with this question.

In the 1980 movie Wall Street, Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko gave a speech – a very interesting speech where he said,

“I am not a destroyer of companies, I am a liberator of them! … The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed in all of its forms. Greed for life, money, love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind, and greed mark my words (will save this company).” Continue reading Is Greed Good?→